‘Game Of Thrones’ Again Tops List Of Most-Pirated TV Shows

For the fourth time in as many years, HBO’s Game Of Thrones was the year’s most-pirated television series as measured in illegal downloads via the file-sharing protocol BitTorrent, according to numbers obtained by Torrentfreak. The ongoing monster hit was downloaded 14.4 million times in 2015, well in excess of the 8.11 million times it was viewed legally in the U.S.

It’s worth noting however that Game Of Thrones viewership in 2015 was the highest in series history, which placed it among the most successful series HBO has ever aired. Since 2013 it has also been the network’s top money earner; indeed, that year HBO programming president Michael Lombardo admitted in an interview that HBO considers the rampant piracy of the show “a compliment of sorts,” proof at least of the series’ wide appeal that has only increased with each new season.

Overall, demonstrating the continued broad appeal of “genre”-oriented programming, fantasy, science fiction, and super hero-centered series dominated the year’s top 10 most-pirated. The No. 2 spot was held, unsurprisingly, by AMC’s The Walking Dead, downloaded 6.9 million times in 2015, compared to viewership of 15.78 million. The CW’s sibling superhero shows Arrow (downloaded 3.9 million times) and The Flash (downloaded 3.6 million times) occupied slots No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Meanwhile, CBS’ Supergirl came in at No. 7 with 2.9 million downloads. USA Network also had two entries in the top 10, with No. 6 Mr. Robot downloaded 3.6 million times, and No. 10 Suits downloaded 2.6 million times.